Marco u.] 
362 
[Nov. 6, 
Reply : I have no time for researches among the twelve or fifteen 
bulky volumes of the Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada ; 
therefore Mr. Selwyn will excuse me if I quote his letter to me, 
dated November 6, 1884. He says, “I have, I think, also deter- 
mined the source of the very peculiar limestone pebbles in the Le- 
vis and Bic Harbor conglomerates which hold characteristic ancient 
forms of trilobites. It is far to the north around the shores of 
Lake Mistassini and along the east coast of Hudson Bay.” 
I have now replied to the seven (not one or two) pertinent ques- 
tions asked by Mr. Selwyn. It is useless to answer the half-dozen 
others, not numbered, and his statement that “there are in Mr. 
Marcou’s papers a great many more inaccuracies, misstatements.” 
I have long ago given up all hopes and recognized the impossi- 
bility of convincing Mr. Selwyn. During many years I have 
patiently answered all his long letters and endless inquiries, but 
without making the smallest impression on him. Further discus- 
sion is useless and cannot give any result. 
I shall only refer, to end the discussion on my part, to his say- 
ing : “Had Mr. Marcou investigated the facts on the ground over 
the whole area as closely and carefully as I and my colleagues have 
done during the past twenty years, he would at least have some 
right to criticise our work . . . but to criticise as Mr. Marcou 
does after very partial observations, and consequently in ignorance 
of many most important facts, and entirely regardless of others, is, 
I think, misplaced.” 
Mr. Selwyn, according to his last report of 1887, had under his 
orders fifty assistants and an annual appropriation of $115,000; 
while I am entirely without any help, having to pay all my expenses 
and to do all the work without the assistance of a single colleague. 
However, I have “closely and carefully” “investigated the facts” 
atPointe Levis, and published in 1864 (Bulletin Soc. geol. France, 
vol. xxi, p. 236, Paris), a detailed paper with a map and a section, 
very different from those of the Canadian Geological Survey pa- 
pers, published on the same locality in 1861 and 1865. Hitherto, 
not a word has been said against the exactness of my observations 
at Pointe Levis, notwithstanding the “last twenty years of careful 
and close investigation of Mr. Selwyn and his colleagues.” 
On the contrary, I have received several favorable opinions as to 
their value. The last one which was received is from Capt. A. W. 
Yogdes and is dated Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor, Oct. 15, 
